The present invention comprises a new and distinct cultivar of geranium, botanically known as Pelargonium zonale, and hereinafter referred to by the cultivar name ‘Grafire’.
‘Grafire’ is a product of a planned breeding program which had the objective of creating new stellar-type germanium cultivars in various flower colors, in combination with early flowering, zoned foliage, and about medium sized, rounded and well-branched plant habit.
‘Grafire’ originated from a hybridization made by the inventor, Angelika Utecht, in a controlled breeding program in Hellscheid, Germany, in 1999. The female parent was an unpatented hybrid plant, no. 88-380-1, having small, red single-type flowers, medium green foliage with distinct zonation, and relatively compact plant habit. The male parent of ‘Grafire’ was the unpatented commercial variety ‘Vectis Glitter’, with single-type, white flowers with irregularly spread small red dots or fine stripes, large inflorescences, and vigorous growth habit.
‘Grafire’ was selected as one flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross by Angelika Utecht in 2000 in a controlled environment in Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain.
The first act of asexual reproduction of ‘Grafire’ was accomplished when vegetative cuttings were taken from the initial selection in the fall of 2000 in a controlled environment in Fuerteventura, Spain, by, or under the supervision of, Angelika Utecht.
Horticultural examination of plants grown from cuttings of the plant initiated in May of 2001, in Hillscheid, Germany, and continuing thereafter, has demonstrated that the combination of characteristics as herein disclosed for ‘Grafire’ are firmly fixed and are retained through successive generations of asexual reproduction.